April 15, 2008

The extraordinary collection of individuals standing for the British National Party in the London Assembly elections can be revealed today.

One candidate, Nick Eriksen, was sacked this month after the Evening Standard reported that he had described rape as a "myth" and said that "some women are like gongs - they need to be struck regularly".

Now further investigations by the Standard show that the far-Right party's 10-strong list of candidates includes:

Chris Forster, a psychic who, according to his website, specialises in the "use of the crystal ball, clairvoyance and mediumship" to "develop opportunities" for businesses and individuals. He promotes himself as "the only qualified internal auditor and accountant working full-time as a psychic".

Roberta Woods, who was recently employed in an important branch of the legal system, despite a conviction for contempt of court. During her attachment to the Legal Services Commission, which distributes legal aid, she complained the legal aid budget was going to too many "aliens".

Lawrence Rustem, a man of mixed race allowed into the BNP because, in the words of one of his fellow candidates, he is "only half a wog".

John Clarke, who was reported to police by a London council after setting up a front address and falsifying his nomination papers to stand in the last borough elections.

The party has high hopes of winning at least one - and possibly two - of the 11 Assembly seats elected under a London-wide system of proportional representation on 1 May. The party scored 4.7 per cent in the last Assembly elections in 2004 and needs around five per cent for one seat this time or eight per cent for two.

However, revelations about its candidates' backgrounds will undoubtedly damage the BNP's cause. Gerry Gable, publisher of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: "If it wasn't so serious, it would be absolutely hilarious. The candidate list includes lawbreakers, cranks and failed business people and is thus wholly representative of the BNP nationally."

Ms Woods, from Eltham, was convicted of contempt of court in 2004 after walking off a jury in the middle of a trial, claiming she had "lost faith" in British justice. Despite this, she was employed this year by the Legal Services Commission. In a letter published in last month's issue of the BNP magazine Identity, she said: "My previous assignment at UBS [the City bank] shocked me when I found myself surrounded by 'aliens'. The same was true at my Legal Services Commission assignment [and] reflects the real level of 'immigrant saturation' in the capital."

Ms Woods wrote that while working at the commission she objected to legal aid payments to solicitors handling immigration and asylum cases. She added: "Why should 'aliens' who have contributed nothing to this country have recourse to this fund? I can hardly bear to go about my business in London these days, it feels like a living nightmare."

A spokesman for the commission said: "Roberta Woods worked here for a brief period in a junior role. She was employed through an agency and we do not require agency staff to undergo a criminal record check. This policy is under review." Ms Woods refused to comment except to say: "Contempt of court is not a criminal conviction."

The BNP's website describes Mr Forster, 51, from Richmond, as an "events organiser".

But the website for his company, Psychic Events, says he "unlocks the power of the mind" and helps people by the "use of cards, crystal ball, psychometry, clairvoyance and mediumship to identify with important events and stages in their past and present and to develop opportunities and clearer vision for the fulfilment of their future".

It continues: "Chris's speciality is remote viewing of people, property or businesses, i.e. to accurately analyse at a distance."

Mr Forster is also described as "the regular tarot and crystal ball reader on Sky TV's Mystic Challenge", a game show where three mystics try to divine a secret about a hidden mystery guest. When contacted by the Standard, Mr Forster said: "Oh dear, oh dear. I wondered how long it would be before that came out." He added: "If I wanted to predict what would happen on 1 May it would be a gut feeling. I'm not going to use the tarot cards and crystal ball."

Mr Rustem, a BNP councillor in Barking, is half-Turkish and was born Timucin Rustem. His membership has been a sore point for BNP hardliners such as Paul Golding, the then editor of Identity, who was expelled from the party after physically attacking Mr Rustem. Julian Leppert, another BNP Assembly candidate and the party's 2004 candidate for Mayor, said Mr Rustem was "okay" because he was only "half-wog".

Mr Rustem insisted to the Standard that Mr Leppert was "joking" and said: "I'm in the BNP because I'm standing up for what I believe in. My political history is something that serves the party."

Mr Clarke sought election as a BNP candidate in Merton in 2006 but used a false address on his nomination papers to get round the rule that council candidates must live or work in the borough. As his current biography on the BNP website confirms, he actually lives in Croydon. After the Standard exposed the front address used by Mr Clarke, as well as another BNP candidate and the BNP supporter who actually lived there, Merton council called the police. Asked why the BNP was claiming three men and their families lived in the two-bedroom maisonette, a party spokesman said: "People live in all sorts of ways these days."

Mr Barnbrook told the Standard: "HMS Discovery was a film dealing with sexuality; it was not porn. What you write about the BNP in the media makes no difference. We will get one, possibly two, seats on the Assembly."

Asked if Mr Forster had ever foreseen a time in his crystal ball when Britain had no ethnic minorities, he said: "No, I don't think so. He's married to a Chinese woman."

The whip round for Dickys new suit now stands at £2.50 come on now lads you can do better than this, there is no way i can get a suit for him on ebay for £2.50 now just one more push to make it to a £5 and we are on.

Where's the beef? This is the BNP we're talking about so there must be more dirt than that!

An amusing piece but I was hoping for rather more substantial dirt when I heard that Gilligan was digging around. Rustem's ethnicity and Dicky's celluloid frolics are a trifle passe now.

In fact raising Foster's marriage to a Chinese woman and Dicky's mixed-heritage step kid could backfire on us by making the fascists look civilised or even human, God forbid.

There ain't much mud in that piece and I doubt whether any of it will stick. Let's hope that we've got a silver bullet and are saving it for nearing polling day because Gilligan's effort isn't going to put the fascists in much of a sweat or lose them many votes.

Roberta Woods was a member of the jury at Southwark court back in 2004. She just got up and walked out of court. She was ordered to pay a £300 fine for contempt of court with the threat of jail if she didn't pay up. I don’t think that the BNP can tell me about justice, when Roberta Woods, one of their own candidates for the London Assembly, blatantly disregards and disrespects the notion of a jury-based justice system.

"The whip round for Dickys new suit now stands at £2.50 come on now lads you can do better than this, there is no way i can get a suit for him on ebay for £2.50 now just one more push to make it to a £5 and we are on."

LOL Just look in the rubbish bins round the back of Oxfam - the one where they dispose of the rejected crap. Lo and behold, there's Dicky's new suit!

1) He was removed from his position as a NALGO shop steward at Wandsworth Council after his fascist and racist politics were exposed (see Searchlight magazine, June 1989)

2) He ran for treasurer of the far-right Monday Club (now banned by the Conservative Party) in 1989 saying that he would “work for an end to black immigration”

3) He was a researcher for the ultra-fascist Western Goals (UK) (later called the Western Goals Institute). The Western Goals Institute attempted to infiltrate fascists into the Conservative party.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the 1993 UNCHR Report listed the Western Goals Institute as an "impediment" to the elimination of racial discrimination in South Africa, saying that the Western Goals Institute "claims to be devoted to protecting the Western way of life by offering self-defence training to white South Africans”

The Western Goals Institute’s international strategy was described as follows:

"Western Goals works to establish networks and links with conservative groups dedicated to the preservation of the cultures and identities of western nations. We are conservatives who believe in traditional conservative values ... It was a mistake to permit these people [immigrants] to come here ... We would seek to have treaties with countries to permit resettlement"(BBC Radio 4 interview, 1991)

4) He was chairman of the Anglo-South African Fellowship (ASAF) (a front organisation for the Western Goals Institute). As the chairman of ASAF, Chris Forster invited racist and fascist apartheid leader Andries Petrus Treurnicht to the UK in 1989

5) He was a member of the tiny and now defunct fascist group, the New Britain Party

6) He described himself as a supporter of the National Front in the 1970s

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/21/thefarright.politics)

7) Interesting description of Chris Forster: “a rather raffish-looking Cockney in his 60s”

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/21/thefarright.politics)

8) It seems that the BNP are embarrassed of Chris Forster’s psychic claims. On the UK polling report website Chris Forster is described as “now working as a psychic and psychic event organiser”.

BNP members posting on the retardely fascist NorthWestNationalists blog slated Chris Forster for having a Chinese wife/girlfriend. Interestingly, the attack on Chris Forster (from his own side for being a race traitor!) was under a posting session by BNP twats complaining about 'Jewish infiltration’ of the BNP and the threat Jews pose to the purity of the 'Aryan Race'.

My previous assignment at UBS [the City bank] shocked me when I found myself surrounded by 'aliens'.

What a racist twat Roberta Woods is! UBS is a Swiss-based bank with employees, customers and offices on every single continent. If Roberta Woods doesn’t want to work at a place where she’ll be surrounded by so-called “aliens”, then she shouldn’t work for a foreign bank that dubs itself as a “global financial services firm”. Roberta Woods will definitely not like the fact that UBS states that it was awarded the ‘Corporate Sponsor Award’ by the Wharton African American MBA Association.

Also, does Chris Forster ban black spirits from contacting him? Does he also seek to repatriate black spirits along with black people when the BNP get into power? So many questions to ask our telesophy-inclined fascist friend, Mystic Forster.